Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Werewolf
Bringing Demi to the clubhouse had been a mistake.
I knew it before we even walked through the doors. She didn’t belong there. She stood out like sunlight in a storm.
The clubhouse reeked of stale beer, smoke, and sweat. Brothers sprawled across couches, boots still on, bottles still clutched in limp hands. The floor was sticky with spilled liquor, the walls buzzing with hangover groans and half-laughed retellings of the night before.
I nursed a black coffee at the bar, with a cigarette burning low between my fingers, when Tremor slid onto the stool beside me.
He didn’t bother with small talk.
“You brought her here.”
It wasn’t a question.
I dragged on the cigarette, exhaled slowly. “Yeah.”
His eyes narrowed, sharp and unblinking. “Why?”
“Keeping her close. Letting her think there aren’t any secrets.” I shrugged like it was nothing, like I hadn’t been up all night replaying every look, every touch, every word. “Figured it was better she see it on my terms.”
He leaned in, voice low, the weight of it heavier than the stench of smoke. “You figured wrong.”
My jaw tightened. “She’s under my eye. That’s all that matters.”
“No,” he snapped, the word hard. “I know you’re up to something, and I don’t fucking like it.”
I turned to him slowly and let the silence stretch until it was sharp enough to cut. “You accusing me of something?”
His grin was humorless. “Not yet. But I’m watching. You can’t handle her.”
Demi Cross wasn’t just mine to handle.
She was mine, period.
“I’m doing just fine, Tremor. Maybe you should just worry about yourself.”
He stood with a sneer and walked away.
I had a target on my back when it came to Tremor, and I didn’t know why. He was right that I was up to something, but he wasn’t going to know about it until it was all said and done.
That night, I found myself outside her building again.
I told myself it was just to check the street and to make sure those vultures from before hadn’t circled back. That it wasn’t about her, not really.
But when her light flicked on upstairs, my chest loosened.
She was safe.
For now.
I leaned against my bike, lit a cigarette, and let the smoke curl up into the dark.
The club was my life. My blood, my bones.
But Demi Cross?
She was starting to feel like the heartbeat underneath it all.
And I didn’t know how long I could keep the two from colliding.
-
The next few days blurred. Work at the garage. Runs across town. Brothers watched me sharply, more than usual. Tremor always lurking, waiting for me to slip.
And Demi, always on my mind, no matter how far I rode.
She called once, her voice sharp, demanding. “When can I see you again?”
I almost hung up. Almost told her to stop calling and stop chasing.
But instead, I found myself saying, “Soon.”
I wanted to see her, but I knew every second I spent with her made me fall even more for her. This was just supposed to be a ploy to get her off the club’s tail.
It didn’t feel like a ploy.
And the more time I spent trying not to touch her, the more I wanted to touch her.
I couldn’t run from her for too long, though. She was waiting outside her building with her arms crossed when I pulled up at my usual time to watch her building.
“You don’t answer texts, but you sit outside my apartment every night,” she said, accusing.
I lit a cigarette, exhaled slowly. “Didn’t realize I was on a leash.”
“You said you’d help. You don’t get to disappear.”
My jaw tightened. “I’m here now, aren’t I?”
She glared, but the fire in her eyes only stoked something darker in me. Something I’d been trying to choke down for weeks.
I rose and stepped closer. “You don’t get it,” I said low. “The more I let you in, the more dangerous it gets. For both of us.”
“Then stop pretending you don’t care,” she shot back. “Because you wouldn’t keep showing up if you didn’t.”
The words landed hard. A truth I didn’t want to face.
I dropped the cigarette, ground it under my boot, and walked back to my bike before I did something I couldn’t take back.
But even with my back to her, my body screamed to turn around.
To close the distance. To claim what I already had in front of the whole damn club.
“Go back up to your apartment, Demi.”
“So you can sit out here until the sun comes up?” she shot. “I know you sit out here every night, but you won’t talk to me. You won’t see me. Why? What happened from the party to now?” she demanded.
“Go up to your apartment, or I’m going to leave.” Everything had changed, but I couldn’t admit any of it. Not out loud. I couldn’t even admit it in my mind.
“So you’re just going to sit outside my apartment every night and never talk to me again?” she asked.
I didn’t turn.
She let out a heavy sigh, and then I listened to the sound of her footsteps retreat down the sidewalk and the thud of the door closing.
I had chased her away tonight, but I knew that wouldn’t last for long.
Demi Cross did not scare easily.